There they were, our elected representatives, Republicans and Democrats on the floor of the house debating.

Were they debating the merits of the bill?

No. There was agreement among them that an extension of 45 tax breaks that were about to run out should be extended into 2010. They were arguing the method used to pay for the tax breaks.

One side preferred to pay with the credit card. One side wanted to crack down on international tax cheats who hide income offshore, and also bring Wall Street hedge fund and equity fund manager’s income from their labor out from the shelter of the 15 percent tax rate of capital gains into the real world of income taxation on labor that all other ordinary Americans face on their wages (35 percent).

Strangely enough the “fiscally responsible, small government” Republicans preferred the credit card method and argued hard, using some kind of pretzel logic from what I could tell, to protect the poor Wall Street paper shufflers from facing the same taxes you and I face on our wages out here working in the real economy.

Those “tax and spend” Democrats preferred to make the system more equitable by taxing everyone’s wages the same.

Seems fair to me.

The bill passed the House 241-181 with my representative, Frank LoBiondo, incredibly voting to protect the Wall Street hucksters.

The Republicans lived for years off of the motto of “fiscal responsibility and smaller government.” It turned out to be just another political platitude. Their new cliché as it turns out is “generational theft,” the transferal of our current debt to our children and grandchildren. They rant on and on about it.

Their demand to pay for the above tax relief on the credit card is all the evidence you need to verify that “generational theft” is no more than another convenient election slogan. Their solution for everything, including paying down the national debt, is another tax cut for the wealthy in their “supply side economics” scheme.

Republicans keep pushing the idea that tax cuts pay for themselves in economic growth and greater tax revenues, which has proven to be false over the long run.

So what is a Republican who is concerned about the current debt to be paid by their children and grandchildren because of bi-partisan mismanagement of government to do? Demand that your taxes be raised to pay down the debt so they don’t have to pay for your largesse. It’s a tough pill to swallow, especially after the Wall Street fiasco.

A return to the capital gains and income tax rates of the George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton era would seem to be a minimal requirement to start to pay down the national debt. The wealthiest among us have had a nice little 12-year capital gains tax holiday, which needs to end so our kids don’t end up in the poor house.

As the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy expire, keep an ear out for the “generational theft” platitude from the party of “fiscal responsibility and small government” and see how it squares with reality or is it really just some sort of fantasy.